“When animals leave their habitat, it’s because they feel something,” Idyll (Ymeiliza Tabora) reports before going into the breach in “Vox Humana,” asked to conduct a most unique police investigation. Possessing a unique set of skills as a zoologist, she’s who the cops call upon finding a feral man (Bruce Venida) in the mountains, a largely uninhabited area that’s also brought out a sound recordist named Esther (Sasa Cabalquinto), who happens to be in the area collecting noises for a film and has no problem ducking under the yellow tape that’s been set up to avoid an incident. Idyll is intent on that not happening as well, gingerly approaching the man who speaks only in grunts and hand motions to calm him down and eventually get on the same wavelength before realizing that the issue may not be in front of her, but instead beneath her feet.
In Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan‘s beguiling short set in his native Philippines, the ability to connect with the feral man may hold the key to understanding what the future holds for everyone in the area when it could confirm a natural disaster is on the way. Ever since Eblahan started making films, he’s been interested in such cultural exchanges with their fraught power dynamics as he’s trained his lens on indigenous communities and observed blind spots created by colonialism. With his partner Hannah Schierbeek, the director has made a series of well-received shorts including “Hilum,” “Remedy” and “The Headhunter’s Daughter,” which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2021 and his latest threatens to do the same when he finds a perfect metaphor here for the themes he’s spent his career so far tackling as survival depends on an ability to figure out a way to open a dialogue.
Now in Park City after “Vox Humana” was warmly received at the Chicago and Toronto International Film Festivals last fall, he and Schierbeek graciously took the time to talk about the film’s genesis as part of plans for a larger feature, inventing a cohesive language for the film and the care and consideration that went into both the landscape and the soundscape.
How did this come about?
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahen: I wanted to make a feature film that revolves around the same kind of topic and atmosphere, so [I thought] while I’m writing the feature script, maybe I should make another short film and try to evoke what I can to show people that I can pull it off. And Hannah has been my collaborator for a long time, producing all of my shorts and she was game to do this one and we made it.
Hannah Schierbeek: Yes, Don moved to the U.S. for college and that’s where we met. Originally, we were making films in school and then we started making films in his hometown in the North of the Philippines. This city actually has a lot of American influence because it was colonized by Americans in the early 20th century, and I have a very unique relationship with the place because I feel quite comfortable there. There’s country music playing and cowboy culture, so it’s very interesting for me to collaborate with Don there.
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahen: Yeah, in the narratives I want to make, I want to express how life is for modern indigenous youth in the Philippines and how they cope with all of the modernizations of the world around us. There’s nothing easier than to express it cinematically through visual clashes and opposing forces. I’ve always been really interested in these contrasts, and as you see with “Vox Humana,” we tried to take it a step higher and infuse a little bit more sci-fi-esque [element] and make it feel a bit more modern than my other films. I’ve always wanted to express the culture that the Philippines had before colonization and how it melts and melds well with post-colonial sensibilities.
Was this specific location in mind from the start?
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahen: Yeah, it’s been in mind since the very beginning. When I was writing the feature version of this short, it’s actually set in two different areas in the Philippines, the North and the South, but for the short, I thought let’s keep it in the North because that’s where I grew up and I know the mountains very well, so it was easier to take the crew around since we didn’t really have much money for the film and I wanted to put the knowledge that I have into making the film.
How did you find this wonderful trio of actors?
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahen: Bruce [Venida], who plays the feral man was in my previous short “Remedy,” and I’ve always loved working with him because he’s quite physical and he has just a natural enchanting aura, but I wanted to change his character a little bit and cut his hair and make him feel more rugged. I always love collaborating with Bruce and then we put out a casting call. Ymeiliza [Tabora], who plays Idil, the sound recordist, was someone who auditioned online and she’s a first-time actor, but was very natural with the vibe and she understood the genre and what we’re trying to do, and for our lead role of Esther, the zoologist/detective character, Sasa [Cabalquinto] was referred to me by a friend who’s a cinematographer and [I said] “I’m not looking for an actor. I’m looking for a dancer who can do all the physicality required for the role.” And she was like, “Okay, well, I have Sasa, who’s an actor who can also do dancing.” Because of that, we found a perfect trio.
Did you actually have a strong idea of what the language was before the actors got on board since it involves so much sound and motion that isn’t an actual language?
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahen: One of my biggest worries was developing this language and it took shape with some ideas that I already had, but then working with Sasa, who basically did our movement direction, she was able to transform a lot of my own directions into some type of physical and mouth sound combinations and textures. But we were worried at first, “Oh, do we have to develop specific sounds or gestures for specific words?” But then I told them, “Just go rhythmically and musical about it and whatever the line is in the Filipino language, try to break up the syllables the same way with the rhythm of your clicking and how you move your hands and your feet.” At the end of the day, it became quite percussive and I think that translates quite well because a lot of languages out there sound quite musical.
Don, from what I understand, you had very specific ideas about the color palette. What was it like to figure out?
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahen: Funnily enough, I’ve been playing a lot of “Silent Hill 2” recently and I’ve been really inspired by textures of old video games and grunge aesthetics of when the digital era of early 2000s. Part of the process with our cinematographer was going to these locations and bringing this old digital camera from the early 2000s and take photos. We’d decide on the shots while we were there, using this tiny little device and viewing these images made us decide, “Maybe we want this type of graininess or maybe we want this type of baked in darkness and contrast and embraced the digital decay that it gives. We shot with a Alexa 35, which has so much dynamic range and allowed us to explore all of these harsher tones and [type of] lighting.
Did the weather cooperate during the shoot? It’s incredible how organically the mood seems to be set.
Hannah Schierbeek: We were fortunate that we were shooting during dry season in the Philippines because we’ve shot during typhoons and that’s much more difficult. But for this, we didn’t know if we would have fog or sun. Those are the two options in January in the Philippines, and the fog would roll in for certain scenes and then the sun would come out for others. But we had decided before the shoot that we were just at the mercy of whatever the weather would bring. We didn’t use any lights because we were mostly shooting on top of a mountain and the crew was carrying up all of our equipment, so we kept the equipment very minimal and just decided that whatever the environment would give us at any time during the shoot is what we’ll get.
If you’ve got a sound recordist character in the film, the sound mix has to be on point, which it absolutely is. Was that an exciting part of this?
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahen: It is. I’ve worked with both of the on-set sound recordist and our post sound person for all most of my previous shorts, and Nicholas Varela, the on-set recordist [somewhat] inspired the sound character of the film because sometimes I would just see him going off on his own recording sounds of waves or leaves and I said, “Okay, let me get inspired by this guy and honor his process.” A lot of his sounds actually were so important and integral into building the world. And I’ve made music with Henry Hawks, our post sound person and he’s amazing. He approaches things so musically, playing with textures and how he spaces apart sounds and playing with silences and pauses. He’s quite unorthodox with his style and sometimes when he mixes for my films, it feels like he’s mixing an album, so his process is quite interesting, and I love it.
It ends on a lovely final song. What was that like to find?
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahen: I initially wanted to compose my own music for that, but I told Hannah, maybe we should find a song that could encapsulate not just the mood and the atmosphere, but also maybe the themes that we’re trying to explore. Hannah’s a big fan of Maria BC and they were kind enough to agree on having us use their song into the film. They were a fan of what we made, so it was an easy job convincing them to be a part of the film.
Hannah Schierbeek: Don and I were both listening to the album a lot leading up to the filming, and testing different music for the ending, and that wasn’t the song he had placed in originally, but we kept discussing it afterwards. Now I cannot imagine the film with a different song, so I’m so grateful.
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahen: When we premiered it at TIFF, it was special because we were with our actors while watching it, and it was some of their first times seeing the film, so we were just holding hands and feeling the vibration of the room while the song reverberates at the end of the film and we all shared this nice experience together as co-collaborators in this film.
What’s it been like actually getting it out into the world and now making your way to Sundance with it?
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahen: I’m excited. I always love being in Q&A situations and talking to people and it’s always a treat seeing how people react afterwards after seeing the film.
Hannah Schierbeek: It’s been very exciting because our last film premiered during COVID, so we weren’t able to really be with the audiences. And this experience has been so nice with people approaching us afterwards. I feel that a lot of our collaborators are really being recognized for their work on the project. People really pick out how great the performances are, how great the cinematography, the post-production is, so it’s really been an honor for our whole team to get to connect with audiences.
“Vox Humana” will screen at the Sundance Film Festival as part of Short Film Program 3 on January 29th at 10:20 am at the Megaplex Redstone, February 1st at 9:40 am at the Megaplex Redstone.